International: Yalta v. Versailles

Having had a few
days to ponder the results of Yalta, last week the world began to draw
more considered conclusions. Some of the most interesting were
comparisons of Yalta with Versailles as instruments for dealing with
the immediate problem of defeated Germany. On this basis Yalta looked
good.

At Versailles the Big Four had been split before the conference began.
Wilson acted rather as an arbiter between an unreasonably vindictive
France and a prostrate Germany than as a member of a victorious
coalition. Soon British policy likewise came to favor the...